10. As surely as the Lord your God lives, the king has been looking for you everywhere. He has sent people to every country to find you. He even made the rulers of those countries swear that you were not there.
11. Now you want me to go and tell him that you are here!
12. If I go tell King Ahab that you are here, the Spirit of the Lord might carry you away. Then when King Ahab comes here and cannot find you, he will kill me! I have followed the Lord since I was a boy.
13. Surely you have heard what I did when Jezebel was killing the Lord’S prophets. I hid 100 of the Lord’S prophets in caves. I put 50 prophets in one cave and 50 in another. I brought them food and water.
14. Now you want me to go and tell the king that you are here. The king will kill me!”
15. Elijah answered, “I serve the Lord All-Powerful. As surely as he lives, I promise that I will stand before the king today.”
16. So Obadiah went to King Ahab and told him where Elijah was. King Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17. When Ahab saw Elijah he said, “Is that really you, the troublemaker of Israel?”
18. Elijah answered, “I have not made trouble for Israel. You and your father’s family caused all the problems when you stopped obeying the Lord’S commands and began following the false gods.
19. Now tell all the people of Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. Also bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah, who get their support from Queen Jezebel.”
20. So Ahab called all the Israelites and those prophets to Mount Carmel.
21. Elijah came to all the people and said, “You must decide what you are going to do. How long will you keep jumping from one side to the other? If the Lord is the true God, follow him. But if Baal is the true God, then follow him!” The people said nothing.
22. So Elijah said, “I am the only prophet of the Lord here, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.
23. So bring us two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal have one bull. Let them kill it, cut it into pieces, and then put the meat on the wood. But don’t start the fire. I will do the same with the other bull, and I will not start the fire either.
24. Prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord. Whichever god answers the prayer and starts the fire is the true God.” All the people agreed that this was a good idea.
25. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “There are many of you, so you go first. Choose a bull and prepare it, but don’t start your fire.”
26. So the prophets took the bull that was given to them and prepared it. They started praying to Baal and prayed until noon. They said, “Baal, please answer us!” But there was no sound. No one answered. Then they began jumping around on the altar they had built.
27. At noon Elijah began to make fun of them. He said, “If Baal really is a god, maybe you should pray louder! Maybe he is busy. Maybe he is thinking about something, or maybe he stepped out for a moment! He could be sleeping! Maybe you should pray louder and wake him up!”
28. So the prophets prayed louder. They cut themselves with swords and spears. (This was the way they worshiped.) They cut themselves until they were bleeding all over.
29. The afternoon passed but the fire still had not started. The prophets were out of control and continued to act this way until the time came for the evening sacrifice. But nothing happened—there was no answer from Baal. There was no sound. There was no one listening.
30. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Now come here.” So they gathered around Elijah. The Lord’S altar had been torn down, so Elijah repaired it.